A cargo ship named Ocean Breeze was stranded at Playa de Llolleo (Llolleo Beach) near the port in San Antonio, Chile on Thursday, August 16, 2012 due to strong current of waves. All of the 24 crew members, many of them are Filipinos, have been rescued and are all safe, as shown in the video below.

According to Soychile.cl, a Chilean news site on Thursday morning, Ocean Breeze arrived on Wednesday from the port of Arica carrying wheat and soybeans, along with 40 tons of oil and 29,000 liters of lubricant, which is feared to cause spill and may result to ecological damage along the San Antonio coast.

As noted in the report, Chilean Navy helicopters arrived at the scene at around 11 am (local time) and the rescued crew members were brought to San Antonio Claudio Vicuna hospital. Osvaldo Castro, maritime governor of San Antonio, said that all of them are now in fine, although some of them were in shock and showed signs of dehydration.

Mr. Castro noted that the anchor of Ocean Breeze got broken due to the strong waves; and although there is no chance that the ship will sink, an oil spill is likely to happen. Another 24 or 48 hours to pass by and it will be very difficult for them to remove it from being stuck in the pile of mud and sand.

As of this writing, Ocean Breeze remains stuck in the sand, and Jaime Villarroel, commander of the Port Authority of San Antonio said that they are still waiting for the cargo ship owner to come up with a plan on how to remove the fuel from the ship.

(Note: The report of Soychile.cl was translated to English by BatangasToday.com. with the help of Google Translate.)

Rescue of crew members of the stranded cargo ship Ocean BreezeVideo Credit: Leovinyl72/YouTube